I never really understood the point of staycations. It always sounded boring to me and a waste of time, but I’m also a person who likes to travel and see new places, even if it means just driving a few hours to a campground and hanging out there for a few days. So, the idea of a “staycation” just has never appealed to me. And, honestly, it still doesn’t.

We just spent 3 weeks in quarantine. That means, with the exception of my husband going to work (and promptly showering and changing when he walked in the door), and only one of us going grocery shopping when ABSOLUTELY necessary, while the other stayed home with the kids, we didn’t go anywhere. Not to the park. Not to someone else’s house. No trips to the gym after the kids were in bed. NOWHERE unless it was truly necessary. And, we didn’t accept visitors either. A full on modern-day quarantine. 

It was actually WORSE than the newborn stage. You know, when you first bring Baby home and are hyper-vigilant about germs and keeping Baby well? So, you have everyone wash their hands, remove shoes, only come over if they’re 110% sure they’re not sick and haven’t been around anyone who has been or is sick… Maybe you make guests wash their phones with the lovely disinfectant wipes that don’t work anyway, so you end up slathering Baby in chemicals… Yeah, that stage. That stage, but on steroids. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? (Pure sarcasm, of course!) 

So, how’d we survive?

1. We stocked up before the quarantine. Necessities like toilet paper and paper towels. Fruit that lasts a while, like oranges and kiwis. Easy to prepare meals with lots of versatility and tons of snacks (thank you, Costco, for being a one-stop shop for this!).
2. We cleaned the house like crazy, just in case there were residual germs left over that we didn’t know about. Toy washes, washing the walls, the whole 9 yards (anyone want to come over? The house is sparkling clean! :)).
3. We told people that we see somewhat regularly about it ahead of time as much as possible. Of course, some people still didn’t like it and found it offensive, but oh well. Such is life. Parenting is about doing what’s best for our kids, right? So, as long as we’re doing what’s best for our children, who cares what others think?
4. We planned a little more than normal, like trips to the store. It was HARD not to just run to the store because we “needed” something. And, this also showed us what we really “need” and what we don’t need. Convenience is a real thing but is also something we can do without.
5. We got creative. How do we get out energy without going out? Some days, we couldn’t go outside because it was too windy, and that’s bad for our environmental allergies, so we did indoor obstacle courses, ran around the island in the kitchen just for fun, did lots of jumping and hopping… Lots of roughhousing. Basically, I made it up as we went. 
6. Lots of free and unstructured play during the day. The rooms the kids were in got THRASHED. But, what else were they going to do? We could only do so many activities together. And, there were no play dates, park play, errands, etc to break up the day, so the playroom and living room got LOTS of use.
7. Games (board games), puzzles, science experiments, and other activities also broke up our day and gave us something to look forward to amidst all the free play. I have to admit that it was fun to see the kids get so creative with their playing and do lots of pretend/imaginary play.

So, was it worth it? Absolutely! It was quite the challenge and a lot of work, but we did it. We made it to our goal date healthy, despite all the random viruses and whatnot going around. Hearing how a few of our friends caught various “bugs,” plus having the norovirus going around leaves no doubt in my mind that we would have caught something had we not had the quarantine in place. Will we be doing a staycation anytime soon? Not a chance!

 
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